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Which points to us being beyond unlucky - I can't ever think of a squad so ravaged by contact injuries. Injuries have defined our season - not only in our playing staff but recruitment too if the Schurrle story is true.

We have been very unlucky with injuries but four problems - all within our control - have massively compounded the problem:

1. Our squad is imbalanced so it only takes one or two injuries in certain positions and we are left with no options. This is most severe in the striker and winger positions where we are very short of numbers and quality. This is th club's fault for not having suitable cover.

2. Because we have such a shallow squad in certain areas, the majority of our players will have to play the full 90 minutes and they will play every game they are fit. This must be putting strain on those players which makes them more susceptible to injuries. A lot of our problems were compounded after the Christmas schedule - some players like Townsend were played too much.

3. We went into this season with a 24 man squad only but you could argue this was closer to being a 21 man squad given the injuries to Wickham and Souare meant they were never likely to be used, especially Wickham. Plus Mutch is clearly never going to be used as he's just plain awful. And even then you could say players like KaiKai and Delaney were also unlikely to be used. That really only left us with 18-19 players who could reasonably be expected to play in the first team. And then we wonder why we are so short when 8-9 players are out?

4. When we finally get round to signing new players, as in January, they are not even ready to start games or come off the bench because we buy players who either aren't fit or not match fit for the premier league. When you are very short of numbers and need some new players to make an immediate impact as we did, why only sign three players who have been bought for the future (though hopefully Sorloth will be able to make an impact soon)? It makes no sense. We have seen clubs around us bring in players who have made an immediate impact - eg Delefaou.

I think we've been very unlucky but poor decisions by the board have magnified these problems. Every season we seem to have positions that are not covered. This isn't about having £100k per week players on the bench but we need a much more balanced squad and we need to be starting the season with a full 25 man squad with as few passengers as possible. I really hope we scrape through and address this in the summer. We're in our fifth season in the premier league and shouldn't have these gaps in our squad.

What ever way you look at it, we have been incredibly unlucky.
I suppose we can point to other issues about the strength of the squad, but we are never going to be in a position of having the luxury of two top players for each position.

We have to live within our means. It's just that when we are hit by an injury crisis, we are going to feel it far more than a Man City, Chelsea or Liverpool.

Difficult times for Roy, that's for sure!

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Winners are losers who get up and give it one more try.

I think that our players get injured more because they are more willing to commit themselves to risky tackles, they want the club to succeed so they put themselves on the line. Call me naive but that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

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Keen believer in the "Mantra of Vince Hilaires Afro"
'Is there actually any evidence of this, or is it something that's just being repeated ad nauseum on the BBS until it's considered 'fact'

Well maybe we should be a bit more positive and hope that these injuries are not down to some sort of Palace bad luck. I would explain using Quantum Theory if you understand that then you would understand the need to be positive.
I am hoping that our three new signings get given game time as soon as possible to prove their worth.
Unfortunately Steve, Dougie and co. didn't identify as some on here did that we reallly needed a back-up winger who could slot in if need be.
However despite his error at Burnley 'total football'-related I reckon, Chungy could play on the wing and be that back-up
OR we could play Soure at left back and PVA at left wing.
Or maybe Sorloth could do a better job at Left wing than James McArthur. They're neither used to being wingers I think that Sorloth is probably faster than James, definitely younger and probably a better crosser of the ball than James or Wilf.
Anyway we'll see soon.

BUT please cut the negativity and superstitious self-affirming prophecy people!

COYP we can and hopefully will stay up in spite of these injuries and hopefully give new players their opportunity earlier.

That we were in pole position (with Palace that certainly doesn't mean we'd have got him) to sign him on loan until someone at Dortmund got injured the day before Deadline Day and Dortmund shut all doors down. He scored and assisted for Dortmund at the weekend...

We have been unlucky with more than injuries for about 2 years now, that includes numerous terrible refereeing decisions, worldy goals, ridiculous numbers of saves/goal line clearances and performances against us with teams hitting form against us at the wrong time. Injuries have been the worse issue problem though.

Reminds of the England national team in the nineties/noughties where we always found new/fluky and interesting ways to get knocked out of competitions that often had nothing to do with football.

The only thing that has gone our way recently is a few penalty decisions (a couple of which we missed anyway).

But it is not just Palace Burnley may be be having their best season for years results wise but this has been achieved despite a terrible run of injuries.

In the 4th game (against Palace), skipper and goalkeeper Tom Heaton dislocated his shoulder and is STILL out while midfield stalwart Dean Marney (ACL) has not kicked a ball this season.

Just as he was really starting to play well, Robbie Brady (ACL) was ruled out for the season while Jon Walters has just returned from an injury suffered in September.

Record signing Chris Wood is currently injured and has missed half a dozen or so games while the defence has been particularly hard hit with Matt Lowton, James Tarkowski, Ben Mee and Stephen Ward ALL missing three games or more with various injuries - Ward the worst with a knee injury which has him still sidelined after missing the last 6 matches.

Only seems half as bad as Palace. We aren't talking little 3 or 6 game absences but players missing for half a season or are out for the season types of injuries. Can you name an entire XI of first team regulars out right now? Sounds like you have 3 or 4 compared to Palace's 7 or 8.

Only seems half as bad as Palace. We aren't talking little 3 or 6 game absences but players missing for half a season or are out for the season types of injuries. Can you name an entire XI of first team regulars out right now? Sounds like you have 3 or 4 compared to Palace's 7 or 8.

Only seems half as bad as Palace. We aren't talking little 3 or 6 game absences but players missing for half a season or are out for the season types of injuries. Can you name an entire XI of first team regulars out right now? Sounds like you have 3 or 4 compared to Palace's 7 or 8.